Tuesday, March 29, 2011

I told ya'all that I was going to spread my fabric acquisition photos out over time. Too embarrassing otherwise. And you want to know what is worse? There's more out there. Must look away. Must look at pretty fabric I already own.

Here's Pokey modeling. You've seen bits of the buggy olive fabrics in previous posts, but not these two Paris prints. I'm a sucker for words anyway, and these are in French:

Definitely had to get this Paris map fabric. I love it, but it doesn't have my favorite area: Montmartre and the basilica.

Even more French-inspired fabric winged its way to me recently. The ever so sweet Jan of Be*Mused surprised me with Japanese fabric :

I get the feeling I need to put all the frenchiness into one quilt.

By the way, I didn't mean to make it look like my condition is so dire. I am not chair-bound, not by a long shot. Spending a whole day in the chair with Pokey? That was just indulgence and wanting to have her close by.

Watched The Bourne Identity last night. Oh, Matt Damon was so cute and young and I loved the interplay between him and Franke Potente. When the stars actually have charisma and the suspense stuff actually works? Heaven. So fun watching them race around Paris in the Mini Cooper - one of my favorite chase scenes ever.

Woohoo, Fringe has gotten renewed for a fourth season. Thrilled about that. It has gotten sooo good this season. But argh, now have to wait for new episodes. If you haven't tried it, read this and just give a recent episode a try.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

From the top down, we have these wonderfully scrappy tropical feeling blocks from Beth, the humming hum, tiny bahs and wonderful sheep fabric (bahhhhhh) from Sandra, and Jen's wild bah and bug at the bottom.

Jen's practically been snowed in where she lives and meanwhile it's supposed to hit 90 here today. Remind me in July and August that I really do love living in Florida. Especially since the painters finished and took all the stinking plastic down and I could open windows, hurrah. Good thing because I was starting to get claustrophobic.

Yesterday I did two demos and some show and tell at the JaM Patch. I brought a variety of blocks to illustrate all the different directions you could take UnRuly Letters.

I think it went well. I actually felt relaxed and confident (what a difference from 6 months ago!). It helps that these were small groups and I wasn't up on a stage with a microphone. (eek. But I think I can do that too.) This was my first time ever sitting at a table signing books. Hmm, I must be an author after all. hee hee hee.

Is anybody reading this who was at the demos yesterday? I'd love to have you say hello in the comments. Actually, I'd love to hear from all (okay any of) the lurkers. Just say hello, maybe tell a bit about yourself.

You know why I'm thinking about that? Because I discovered a fabulous blog recently that I totally love reading. I went back and read through all the archives. Turns out she'd been lurking on my blog but never said hello. I only found her because I googled my name (that's embarrassing to admit).

The blog is Completely Cauchy by Chawne. I want to give you a warning before you go visit. She's fabulous, she's funny, and she's uncensored. If you are offended by seeing profanity written out, don't go. Otherwise check out her great word quilt featuring George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say on TV. I love the quilt, I really do.

To hear the George Carlin riff, there's a good version of it here. I admit to using some of those words quite freely and using one of those words never. It makes me cringe and I don't even like looking at it. But it does make me think of my favorite joke on Arrested Development about Gob wanting to buy a boat called the Seaward, which you can see here. I just rewatched that four times - always makes me giggle.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

I have red and white quilt envy. How I wish I could see these quilts in person. The Quilt Show has produced an amazing video of some of the quilts on display in NYC this weekend at the Armory. Please please please, somebody publish a fantastic book with these quilts on big pages. Big, big book. Please.

I haven't even finished watching this yet, but couldn't wait to share it with you.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

I'm glad you guys enjoyed the previous post since I definitely had fun putting it together. We need something to smile about these days.

Our building is being painted, that's why we're all taped and papered up. I'm almost (just almost) embarrassed to be showing you this after reading blogs and seeing enormous mounds of snow.

It is windy here if that makes you feel any better. The plastic is making all sorts of noise and there is a particular tapping that is driving me nuts.

The electrical device? That's my TENS unit. It's supposed to help with the pain. It's a sensation like buzzing needles jabbing you (only not pointy painful needles) and people either love it or hate it. I'm a lover, although I'm not all that impressed with this little gadget. Two hours of battery life and then recharge for four.... Lily is not amused (and that's Howler looking up):

I've been soaking up the kitty love. Last Saturday I could not turn the news off. Little Pokey stayed with me the entire day, usually voluntarily. I definitely needed that warmth and love.

You know how if it's not one thing it's another? Dragging my poor sorry self around the house, my foot smacked into a case of canned cat food. Sigh. It really hurt for a couple of weeks. Stupid foot.

My recovery from surgery is going sooo slowly and I am quite cranky about it at times. The surgeon tells me it will be another 6 weeks before I notice a real improvement. Gah! I'm enjoying PT though.

Good news though. I received my registration info for the Sisters quilt show and woohoo, I got into the Gee's Bend quilters' workshop and lecture. Yay!!! I might even be mobile by then.

If you happen to be in the neighborhood, I'm doing a couple of demos on Saturday at The JaMPatch in Stuart, Florida. 11am and 2pm. Stop by, say hello, see some quilts...

Bah Humbug is wrapping up and I figured it was time for some more fun. The group project is: Hallowistmas Border Town. (Someone is going to have to come up with a better name than that.) You can read more about it here and here on the UnRuly Quilting Blog.

It's an idea I've been kicking around for years - Liberated Houses combining Halloween and Christmas. Why now? You know how monsterish I've been feeling. Meanwhile I still have my Christmas quilts up on the wall (had to keep them up for faux Christmas in February and then after surgery haven't been keen on laddering to get them).

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

See this wonderful fabric? Classic horror movie monsters acquired in one of my recent fabric acquisition sprees. Well, it's a good thing I like these guys because I am now one of them.

If the Bride of Frankenstein were actually pictured here, it would be my face you'd see. It all began innocently enough in 2006. I had a goiter in my throat. Disgusting word that, goiter. A biopsy of the goiter revealed cancer, so out went my thyroid. The swelling was sooo huge at first that it really did look like my head had been chopped off and replaced by a new one. Over time, the effect has diminished, but the scar remains:

In 2009, I had abdominal surgery and have a big old scar from my belly button down to where the top of my bikini bottom would be, if I were ever to wear a bikini (the odds of that? zero!). I am going to save your eyes the horror (and me the humiliation) and NOT post a picture of that.

Fast forward to now, 2011. I have a noticeable streak of grey in my hair reminscent of the classic Bride's although okay, she had streaks on both sides. It's modern times, baby, and asymmetry is in.

Last month I acquired a few more baby scars hardly worth mentioning. All of that not enough to make me a monster. But last week I got the pièce de résistance, the addition of electricity:

It's ALIVE!!!

Now they've sealed me into the condo so I can't go out and frighten the villagers.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Do you all remember Lajla? She's a wonderful Norwegian-Australian quilter who's made two previous UnRuly Word quilts which I shared in this post. Well she has made another pair of awesome quilts. She describes them as "use what you've got quilts." She only bought fabric for the backing - the rest all came out of stash. Both are machine quilted or else, she explains, they'd never be finished. Boy do I understand how that works...

First off is her four letter Word quilt - another take on using just four letter words like we did with Cake.

I love love love this quilt it is so joyous and exuberant. I asked her how she went about making it:

I had a list of words written down and decided to put GIVE HOPE together, somewhat fitting these days with all the drama unfolding around the world. Including Australia where we have had serious flooding this year. Started off with LOVE in the middle and just kept going, making one world at a time. Then I realised I would probably have to increase the size of the words as I went, or I would run out of words, and would maybe have to include the one word most people think about when you say 4 LETTER WORD........Some people look for it, even turning the quilt over to see if I have put it on the back! I sort of made this as a protest to how that word has become part of daily language, at least in this neck of the woods.

So I had to get my tape measure out; the quilt is 51" x 56" (kind of!) I only measured across the middle to be safe, my quilts are not guaranteed to be perfectly square (life is too short). LOVE block is 8 1/2" x 12" and CHAT letters are 7 1/2" tall (approx). WISH is next to PLAY and it is not a good contrast so difficult to see in photo. But as I said, I used what I had of fabrics, and I am not one to unpick either...

Unsurprisingly, I love her attitude as well as the quilts. I often list the size of my quilts along with an -ish tacked on at the end.

Here are a couple of close-ups. This is the center, so you can see how she created it medallion style:

I love this HELP. I'm sure Lajla used it in the sense of Help One Another but it looks like a Help Me! as the word goes sliding out of the block. Adds some humor.

This Home quilt is a sampler with houses, trees, hearts, cupcakes and mugs. Doesn't it just glow?

Lajla (shown here on a textile tour of India - my do I have envy) adds:

My quilts are pretty much just whacked together........Not much pre-planning, which lands me into trouble at times, or into a corner. Then I have to problem solve and get myself back on track. That's part of the fun! ... just tell people DON'T THINK TOO MUCH, go for it!

Thank you so much, Lajla, for sharing your experiences and quilts with us. I adore you!

Hope you all enjoyed this too. Pokey just brought a pompom - time to play.

Here's a different batch which includes a couple of wonderful white fabrics with bright bits and a cool Day of the Dead cutout fabric.

I picked up my new glasses today. Self-portrait taken with the webcam in my laptop.

RayBan frames - woohoo. These look so much more me than the last couple of pairs of glasses I've had. I hate the small, narrow, rectangular frames that have been in style for the last, what, ten years? Yuck. I like big round plastic frames so that I can see more. RayBan also had some funny cats-eye glasses and I would have considered them if they'd looked good on me, but they certainly did not.

It's gonna take me a bit to get used to them. Feeling kinda seasick - it's always an adjustment.

I happened to mention to LeeAnn (Nifty Quilts) that I was thinking about going to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in July and she offered all sorts of enticements to coerce convince me to go. When someone offers to sleep on the floor to let you have their bed you know they have an incredibly generous nature and maybe really want you to come. So I've bought my tickets and sent in my registration for classes (for Quilters' Affair beforehand) and we'll see what happens. Not a big deal if I don't get classes since I'm get to meet so many folks I've only corresponded with for so long.

Mandatory kitty pictures. Habibi and Howler. Did I tell you Howler now weighs 24 lb? He certainly looks it in this photo:

Howler's too lazy to actually get up during combat operations:

Always love the big bushy tails. I don't think I've ever seen Howler do that. All the other cats, definitely...

I think I better be good now and work on those class write-ups I've been ignoring. Thanks for the feedback that ya'all gave me on it!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Woohoo, I wrote up my biography (tweaking Kathy's version a bit) and actually included the fact that I'd written a book. yes, good call. Can't believe I forgot to mention that. I also had to submit a photo. I pinned The Margarita Quilt (still no binding) up to my design wall, put my camera on a tripod and snapped away. I coerced Lily into participating (initially she kept running away from me, but her curiosity got the better of her). Rather than use the timer I just stuck my arm out and clicked. Thought you'd be amused to see an uncropped photo:

I got an expensive haircut in preparation for this. For the last couple of years I've been going to the cheap places where you wait and I had one stylist who did a really good job. She left and my last two haircuts have been horrible. I felt ugly. So I decided it's time to start paying what a good haircut actually costs and go for it. In order to get the style I wanted, I searched online for "pixie haircut" and was amaazed at how many styles that actually encompasses. I found what I wanted with the Diablo Cody (screenwriter of Juno) haircut. I don't consider it hers, since this is how I've been trying to get my hair cut for years.
I also bought new glasses. Woohoo, so ready for that - I've hated these ones since I first got them. Anyway, I splurged and went for the new HD lenses which are supposed to provide better clarity and peripheral vision. I use my eyes quite a bit (don't we all), so I figure that's an area that's worth spending on. But it takes longer to grind these lenses so instead of one hour, think 10-14 days. I don't have them yet, but I'm excited!!!!

Is that all boring? Sorry. At least it's not me whining!

I got some fun stuff in the mail from Mary C. A hum for you-know-what:

A fun cat's head for Halloween:

and wheee, UnRuly Kitties:

Thank you, Mary!

You know in my last post how one of my favorite things is my TiVo? Well not today! It's refusing to start. Agh, it did this once before, about a month ago, but after several hours (and phone calls to customer service which did no good) it finally started working again. I decided that was just a blip and I didn't buy a new one. Agh. It's been several hours already and no luck. Life without tv? What will I do?

I'm glad I watched the new episode of Fringe last night. If you're not watching the show and you like sci-fi, then seriously, go rent the dvds, start with season 1 and realize that by the time the show hits season 3 it's really got it all together and is lots of fun. Just took them sometime with the world(s) building.

So after the successful biography writing session last post, it's time to set you guys on another homework task. I've been approached by several guilds to teach. It's one of those terrifying/exciting things. I need to have a professional write up of the classes I offer. So hard for me. Is that a left brain task or what. This is what I've got. What have I left out? What is it you'd really want to cover in a class. etc. Ready? Here we go.UnRuly 4-PatchAn introduction to free-pieced letters. Weʼll cover how to piece just a few lettersand then practice them multiple times to really get the hang of them. We can do LOVE and if folks want to, itʼs easy to throw a few more letters in there too like I (LIVE)and an H and P (HOPE) and an easy HOME. This is a project that looks great in solids or completely and totally scrappy. Iʼll show different ways the 4-Patches can be put together.Hugs and KissesAnother practice and repeat project, Hugs and Kisses focuses on the letters O and X. Youʼll get really good at making them! The letters can then be put together in either an easy method (such as the 4-Patch) or more complicated, as in my Fruit PunchAn Overview of UnRuly LettersIʼll show you all the tricks you need to make every letter. I recommend working with two strongly contrasting solids. You wonʼt get a whole sampler done in a day, and probably wonʼt even finish all the letters, but youʼll have a great headstart.Crumb QuiltingAnything goes to use up all your bitty scraps. Weʼll cover log cabin style construction, wonky hearts, easy houses, maverick stars and maybe even a few HOPEful letters.

WonkytownWonky Houses aka Liberated Houses ala Gwen Marston. A free-pieced project that can be great fun using novelty fabrics.

Novelty Flower PotsThis is a design class where weʼll play with paper, scissors and fabric but wonʼt do any sewing. I have a love of Halloween which is why Iʼve made a booquet but this technique works great with a range of holiday novelty prints or something goofy like all cats.

UnRuly HalloweenWe'll have fun making spiders, jack oʼlanterns, the letters BOO and a haunted house.

Friday, March 11, 2011

I have to write a biography for an upcoming magazine article. The article part is exciting, but writing the biography is really hard for me. That's the work I was avoiding in my last post and well, I've managed to keep avoiding it.

I can talk/write for ages about things that I love like quilting, books, tv, my cats. But personal details about myself? Gives me the heebie jeebies.

So I've been trying to think of the autobiography that I would be happy with. I think it would go something like this:

There wouldn't be any more of an explanation. Just the list. I wish I had made the quilt. Would be fun to do one every ten years and see what's changed. I can't believe I left my English Breakfast Tea out of my current autobiography. Yeah, that has to go on there. Already rewriting me.

I have to drink about 6 mugs-worth (my big old Starbucks mugs) of Twinings or the day just isn't complete. By the way, I have managed to kick my diet soda habit. wooohooo. Now to stop the chocolate and junk food. One step at a time.

Anyway, I've got a job for ya'all. Write a biography of me. You guys won't get bogged down by silly things like the facts. Be creative. Ready? Set? Go!

And if you want some additional homework? I'd love to know a few of your favorite things too.

How did it get to be 1am? Well, I think I can finally go to sleep now. ya'all take care.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

I freely admit that I write this post not to entertain you, but to avoid doing the work I'm meant to be doing. But okay, you might find some of it interesting anyway. First off, what's on my design wall?

I actually sewed something that I can show you on the blog! I made a letter B for Brenda, you can read more about it here.

I got some more fun Bah Humbugness in the mail. Ramona of Ramona's Handwork made the top one and 12 x 12'er Kristin LaFlamme made the lower big red Bah (probably in a brazen attempt to once again get me to link over to her blog. it worked!) Thank you both!

What am I avoiding you ask? Ack, I'll tell you about it another day since I gotta get to PT soon.

I know you need a kitty photo so here's Lily sleeping in her favorite spot on the top of the sofa cushion. I know it doesn't look like a sofa, but that's because I throw a sheet over it - so much easier to clean.

Lily sleeps here so often she's made a permanent hollow - kind of like Homer Simpson on his own couch.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Over the last month since my knees surgery (knee surgeries?) I've been sitting a lot in the recliner icing. It's too awkward to do handwork. Instead of doing something relatively productive like watch tv or read books, I've been searching out cool fabric on the internet. danger danger danger. Didn't I say something about how I wasn't going to buy any fabric this year? ha hahahahahahahha. Yeah well, that didn't go so well. At all.

Now, I did give myself some outs. I did say I could buy Letters, Aliens, Robots, and Rollercoasters. And while you're putting the order in, you might as well get other fabric too... Rather than post all my acquisitions at once, I'm going to parcel them out in an attempt to not look like I've gone as crazy as I actually have.

I bought two colorways of the fabric that says Hello in multiple languages - I just wish they hadn't transliterated everything into our alphabet. Still cool though. and I love the reddish fabric in the middle that has passport stamps and place names: London, Egypt, Paris etc. couldn't resist that, now could I.

Some fun brights

Fun stuff. The third fabric over says Blast Off in big letters and then has a rocket with the countdown.

I have bugs on the brain (I blame the humbugs) and when I discovered that the completely awesome black and white diagonal bug marching fabric had other colors I got sucked in. Especially since the Fat Quarter Shop had the line at half price (emphasis on HAD). Can't expect me to resist that! I finally managed to get some help with the photo sessions, although Pokey was more interested in the lens cap than modeling:

okay okay

I love my camera, I really do. It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. I did a lot of research before I bought it and it had the best low-light capabilities for my purposes. I want to be able to take lots of photos of quilts in natural light AND the kitty cats and it's fabulous for both. The only drawback is the stinking lens cap. It stays on a string so that you don't lose it when you take it off, which is good, but itcan definitely get in the way. Sometimes I do use it to get Pokey's attention.

I take a lot of photos of the cats just to get a few to turn out. For this particular session I must have taken 50 photos with only 5 turning out. (yes, there are only four photos here, I saved one for another day.) I have a particular way of inhaling my breath that I use to signal kitty treat time. I can do that to to get Pokey to look at me, but it only works 2 or 3 times a session.

I got down on the floor with Pokey to take these, but luckily the staircase was nearby so I was able to scooch over and put my legs several steps down in order to get up.

I whine, but the knee is doing better. I'm such an idiot. I've been saying at physical therapy that my left knee is hurting worse than it was a couple of weeks ago. Never did it cross my mind that I was taking a lot of pain meds then which for the most part I'm not doing anymore. Well, no wonder.

I've been having problems with insomnia, so of course I took a nap this afternoon and now don't feel sleepy at 11pm. sigh.

I love the new show on NBC called America's Next Great Restaurant. It really should be on Bravo or the Food Channel but I'm not going to complain. Although yes, I do still hate the major broadcast networks showing reality rather than scripted tv. Anyway, they've got hopeful restaurateurs hoping to convince folks to invest in their particular idea for fast casual dining. So it's Top Chef combined with Shark Tank (US version)/Dragon's Den (UK version) all of which I love.

Only one episode has aired, but right now I'm rooting for the healthy Indian food option. Don't even have an unhealthy Indian food place to eat here - just a really bad one.

The guy who started the Chipotle chain is one of the judges/investors. I LOVE Chipotle. When I lived in MD for a couple of months there was one a block away from my apartment and I used to go all the time. really good fast Mexican food and I love their whole ethos. So much better than the mexican food I can get at restaurants here. Just discovered recently that we had one open near us here - woohoo!

Sunday, March 06, 2011

I have a beautiful book to share with you. Twelve By Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge.

The book is about the 12 x 12 group and their challenges to make 12" square quilts. Rather than go into the details, I'll just send you to their blog to read more. As far as the book goes, it's published by Lark and they always do such a gorgeous job with their books. It's my favorite kind of quilt book = wordy. That is, there are stories to about how the challenge topics were chosen, how the quilters picked what to work on, their techniques for putting the quilts together. Plus, I LOVE pictures of quilters' studios and collections and the book even includes that, as well as biographical details. So much information packed in here.

My longtime blogging friend Kristin LaFlamme is a member of the 12 x 12 group. Kristin and I actually got to meet in Houston - woohoo! I was also lucky enough to meet her darling (but tired after the long flight from Hawaii and now we're at a quilt show) kids and her generous husband, who is known in Internetlandia as IBOL guy. IBOL = Iraqi Bundles of Love, in which quilters (knitters and anyone else who wants to help) send sewing products and fabric to share with Iraqis, to try and show some love and generosity. Read the IBOL blog to find out more.

So, this is me (on the left in my new Just Bobbin Along necklace that I bought at the show but you can buy here) and Kristin:

I have been working my way through the 12 x 12 book, savoring it slowly, but not doing much fiction reading. I go through booms and busts. Partly because once I get really hooked into a novel I can't put it down and I stay up until 3am reading it (just like I did all throughout my school years - not very bright).

TV has been really pathetic lately. When my sweetie was home we finally got to watch the rest of Burn Notice season 4. I hope he's not reading this, but I thought it was really disappointing. The whole Jesse thing just took too much time away from the main characters whom I all love. Not to mention that I am so tired of the whole Burn Notice thing. Let it go already.

Also finished The Closer's most recent season. (Can I just say how annoying it is for some of these summer programs to take a break in the middle of their already short season? gah). That show just doesn't intrigue me or make me laugh the way it used to. Always have too many kinda preachy episodes. But it did have one of my favorite episodes ever, The Layover, with Flynn and Provenza. I love those guys.

Hee hee hee. I was looking for a Closer clip to show you and came across this Sesame Street takeoff. It's short and a hoot:

Have ya'all seen Downton Abbey? Fantastic show. I had to order the dvd before the show even finished airing on Masterpiece Theater. Here is a quote from Jace Lacob's Daily Beast article on the show

Downton Abbey offers a lavish take on the period drama, depicting the lives of the wealthy Crawley family and their servants at an English stately home just prior to World War I. When the sinking of the Titanic takes the lives of the next two heirs to a vast estate, the Crawley family is left with a dilemma as the next in line to inherit is a distant cousin, a middle-class solicitor whom none of them know.

Whee, so looking forward to the sequel, filming soon in the U.K. Man, it's gonna take forever to get here!

Okay, so not only do I have a thing for shows made from Jane Austen's books, but also for shows set in this later time. The writer of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellows, also did Gosford Park which I love and is set in the same time period. Edwardian, right? Speaking of which...

Has anyone else ever seen the U.K. series Flambards? It's about a teenage girl Christina who's been orphaned and sent off to live with her mean uncle and his two sons. The elder is very virile and horsey and the younger, William, is crippled and extremely intelligent (and of course despised by his father and brother). Oh, and the good looking stable boy. So there are horses, early motor cars and aeroplanes and it's just fabulous. And uh oh, World War I is looming...

The show aired on PBS when I was about 16 - the perfect age for the show. I sooo loved it. Taped it on the VCR and watched it over and over and over again. When it played ten years later, I watched it all over again, sucking a roommate right into it too. Just writing this makes me realize how much I loved this show and the books (starting with Flambards) it was based on. I had to go see if it was on DVD and it looks like there is an old crummy transfer available and a new dvd set is coming out next month. But has it been remastered?

So funny thinking about this show as an adult because there is all this romantic tension between Christina and her cousins. Kinda icky. Hmmm, maybe it was a step-uncle or something. It appears I don't remember the ENTIRE thing as well as I thought. I could certainly tell you all the plot points though and about the adventurous Dorothy in her motor car....

Okay, that's enough of a novel to write for today. Oh wait. If I forget to put kitty pics in a blog post (again) my husband will kill me (with his sadness). While he was home, he managed to get some rare shots of all four kitties in the same place. Of course there was sunshine:

About Me

I live in Florida with my seven cats and my husband. I've been a quilter since 1987 and consider my style liberated and non-traditional traditional (think Gwen Marston, Gee's Bend, and string quilts) and I watch way too much tv while sewing and hand-quilting.